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Prescribed burns in Shawangunks successfully completed
Mid Hudson News
December 1, 2005
The first series of prescribed burns in the Shawangunks in over 25 years were successfully completed last week at the Spring Farm area of the Mohonk Preserve near New Paltz by the Shawangunk Ridge Biodiversity Partnership.
The Partnership is a science-based, public/private consortium of agencies dedicated to the long-term protection of the Shawangunks. The series of three burns was managed by a team of trained wildland fire managers assembled by the Partnership. The prescribed fire management team included Mohonk Preserve Rangers, Nature Conservancy staff from the Shawangunks and the Albany Pine Bush, Mohonk Mountain House staff, a Student Conservation Association fire team, and several qualified volunteer firefighters. Rangers from Minnewaska State Park Preserve and DEC Rangers were on hand as back-up.
Prescribed fires are set intentionally and safely under predetermined conditions to achieve specific land management objectives.
"Prescribed" fire means that the fire will not be set unless all of the required conditions are met at the site. These include time of year, wind speed and direction, temperature, relative humidity, fuel moisture and having qualified, burn crew members and appropriate, wildland firefighting equipment on hand.
The go-ahead for each Spring Farm burn was given once it was determined that the weather and all other predetermined conditions ensuring safety had been met. "Our emphasis in this first set of burns was to demonstrate the safe use of fire as a management tool, working with a team of firefighters from partner organizations and agencies," said Glenn Hoagland, executive director of the Mohonk Preserve. "We will study the impact of fire on woody species in the fields burned, to assess how well it can help us maintain our open fields."
The three burn units, ranging from four to seven acres in size, were in open fields on the Preserve. The Mohonk Preserve will monitor the effects of the burn on the fields' ecology and will evaluate the effectiveness of burning in keeping the fields open.
"The Preserve is testing whether prescribed burning can provide a cost-effective way to maintain open fields that make up part of our historic and ecologically important landscape," said Hank Alicandri, the Preserve's head ranger and director of Stewardship.
"Fire is an alternative to mowing and helps reduce the growth of woody vegetation," he said. "Open fields are also a good place to train wildland firefighters in the specific techniques of prescribed fire, because the high visibility across the fields makes them an easy place to observe operations underway."
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